{"id":30308,"date":"2025-11-02T16:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T16:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/30308\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T16:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T16:46:11","slug":"28-floridians-evacuated-from-jamaica-after-hurricane-melissa-decimates-island-gov-ron-desantis-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/30308\/","title":{"rendered":"28 Floridians evacuated from Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa decimates island, Gov. Ron DeSantis says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Florida Lt. Governor Jay Collins was on the tarmac as 28 Floridians rescued from Jamaica landed Saturday in Tampa. Photos: Lt. Gov. Jay Collins\/X <\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – A rescue plane with more than two dozen Floridians who were in Jamaica landed at Tampa International Airport on Saturday \u2013 days after Hurricane Melissa<\/a> struck the Caribbean island, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

In a news release, DeSantis said evacuation efforts began on Halloween. The plane departed Jamaica on Saturday morning and landed in Tampa, Florida on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Florida Lt. Governor Jay Collins shared on X that he was on the tarmac to welcome those Floridians home.<\/p>\n

Hurricane Melissa \"\" <\/p>\n

An aerial view shows damaged buildings in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, in Westmoreland, Jamaica, on October 31, 2025. At least 19 people in Jamaica have died as a result of Hurricane Melissa which devastated the island nation when it roared as <\/p>\n

Hurricane Melissa<\/a> rapidly intensified into a strong, powerful, and destructive Category 5 hurricane before making landfall on the western side of Jamaica. It then made landfalls over Cuba and the Bahamas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deaths <\/a>have been reported in Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, according to FOX Weather.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Source: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the news on Saturday, Nov. 1, in a post on X. Additional details were included in a news release issued later. Additional reporting from the National Hurricane Center, FOX Weather, and officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida<\/a>Hurricanes<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Lt. Governor Jay Collins was on the tarmac as 28 Floridians rescued from Jamaica landed Saturday in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,944,115,135,137,136,628,221],"class_list":{"0":"post-30308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-hurricanes","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-tampa","12":"tag-tampa-headlines","13":"tag-tampa-news","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}